Jam Space Confidential With Georgia Harmer

While searching for what has become the artist couple’s first home together this past spring, Harmer says the attic drew her to the unit, coincidentally tucked into the same residential neighbourhood as her childhood home. “The room that I spent the most time in growing up, writing songs and playing music, was the third floor, peaked roof attic at my parents house,” she says nostalgically. 

She recalls escaping to it after school to “do homework,” but actually making songs on GarageBand and belting at the top of her lungs.

Now, Harmer intends to use her new attic for the songwriting of her next project. She’s also looking forward to reading and knitting up there in the winter months. “I listened to my friend’s unreleased album in headphones [recently],” she says. “I just laid on my roof up here. I find it to be a nice escape from the chaos of the city.”

Comedically, as she introduces her roster of wooden instruments, the top of her head only misses the ceiling by a couple of inches. At six-feet high, it just accommodates her height, but for Kelly, who is 6’3, it requires a bit more maneuvering. 

Harmer’s instruments of choice, nestled between books, antique furniture, and cottage-core accents, include her two acoustic guitars and a mini pump organ. “I had been wanting a pump organ my whole life, because my best friend’s grandparents have this farmhouse, and in their mud room, for some reason, there’s a massive pump organ that somebody found on the side of the road,” she says. “So every time we go, I spend the whole time in the mud room because it’s the most viscerally insane sound.”

She cites the rustic nature of that farmhouse, as well as her own family’s cabin in Quebec, as part of the inspiration for the attic’s decor. Serendipitously, Harmer’s aunt and uncle recently shared that they were looking to unload their mini pump organ, its existence unbeknownst to Harmer, and she jumped at the opportunity to acquire it. “It’s essentially a wind instrument and a piano mixed together,” she says while demonstrating a few keys. “It sounds like a voice.”  

Harmer considers herself an intuitive musician, rather than a theory-based one, and also lacks a penchant for the minutia of gear, with the exception of acoustics. While her original guitar is her 1930s Gibson-made Cromwell, which she found on Kijiji, her newest addition is a 1930s Martin that she purchased severely damaged from Folkway Music, and had repaired by luthier Ryan Mackinnon. Knowing it was her best chance to afford one, she purchased the instrument on a whim over the phone. “It’s inspiring, because it’s a new voice,” she says happily. “I get to write another record on that guitar.”

Another pride point of the attic is a couch, sitting by the doorway to the rooftop, that folds out into a bed. “One of my life goals has been to have a guest room,” says Harmer. “I love the feeling of making up a bed for someone. It feels like a direct way of caring for someone I love. Luckily, Matt’s like that too, so we host a lot of friends.” 

Outfitted by Brixton